How difficult the past weeks have been for Dimitrij OVTCHAROV the six-time Olympic medalist has now shared in major interviews with the German leading quality newspapers “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. The 33-year-old former world number one was born in Kiev came to Germany with his parents as a small child and has friends and relatives in Ukraine. Since 2010 OVTCHAROV played for the Russian top club Fakel Gazprom Orenburg. The war now also changed everything for the 2017 World Cup winner and his family as he describes in the interviews.
“At the beginning (Editor’s Note: of the war) I didn’t think about table tennis at all I only thought about how I could move my grandma out of Kiev ” he tells FAZ. His 85-year-old grandmother is the mother of Dimitrij’s father Mikhail who was also born in Kiev too and was a former national champion and national player for the Soviet Union. After a few weeks she escaped to Germany with the help of an old friend of Mikhail.
Even though Dima helped and continues to help friends and acquaintances from Ukraine who are seeking refuge in Germany he does not consider himself an “active refugee aid worker”. In the first two weeks of the war he made a huge number of phone calls learned a lot about German entry regulations and above all experienced a wonderful willingness to help among his German compatriots OVTCHAROV told the FAZ. A real estate company in Düsseldorf for example made several flats available at short notice and without red tape to the Ukrainians who had approached OVTCHAROV. Many friends and acquaintances of Germany’s number one had also arranged housing. Borussia Düsseldorf was one of the first to help. OVTCHAROV also called in the German Table Tennis Association.
When he decided to change clubs the Fakel Orenburg did not put any obstacles in his way. The personal bond after 12 successful years is a strong one. “I told them: I know you have nothing to do with it but I can’t play in Russia any more. They showed understanding for that ” Dimitrij OVTCHAROV told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Sport should be a symbol that anyone can play with anyone no matter where you come from.”
He had turned down offers from Japan for his transfer back to Germany to TTC Neu-Ulm for the news season and it was OVTCHAROV himself who made the fist approach and gave a phone call to club boss and publisher Florian EBNER.
Ovtcharov: “He was extremely enthusiastic and wanted to make a big project out of it right away. Within a week we then put the team together.”
In addition to the Champions League the current world number seven will play in the German Cup and possibly – depending on the WTT calendar – in TTBL the Bundesliga every now and then.
After his foot injury and surgery in the autumn and a relapse in February he is planning his comeback for the beginning of July. He is currently training 4 hours a day 2 at the table 2 in the gym.
“Out of caution however I am still playing with protection on my foot and I am not moving to the maximum yet because I want to avoid another setback by all means ” explains Dimitrij OVTCHAROV. Fortunately the international calendar currently allows him time for convalescence.
Links
To the detailed interviews in the FAZ and the Süddeutsche Zeitung in German (both free to subscribers only)
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/sport/mehr-sport/dimitrij-ovtcharov-ueber-den-ausschluss-russischer-sportler-17982619.html
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/sport/tischtennis-dimitrij-ovtcharov-krieg-in-der-ukraine-russland-interview-1.5572257?reduced=true
